Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1887-03-11
SCIENCE AND FICTION.
The Manner In Which the Two Are In
debted to Each Other.

The Manner In Which the Two Are In
debted to Each Other.
The bonds linking together science
and fiction are already strong. Science
owes to our novelists much of its inter
G t. much of its publicity. The scientist
slowly and laborousIy hammers out
some new discovery, some recognition
of the individual ty of a certain group
of symptoms which had been previously
10 in the crowd; wearied with his
work, lie too often launches his discov-
cry, with all tie ugliness of technically
hanging around it like aconvict's dress.
betoken ng the hard labor through
which it has passed; and then some
good Samaritan of a novelist turns out
of his way to take pity on it, to lavish
care upon it, to clothe it anew, to at
tract 10 it the attention of the public
and thus to save it from death through
neglect. 1t is introduced into good so
ciety, and it thrves, and perhaps be-
comes Il leading tOp.c of conversation
for short time.
But if the scientist has reason to be
grateful, so also has the novelist New
facts have been given to him, new mar
wells to dilate upon and make his own
he has been supplied with new modes o
escape from the web of intrcacies will
which he has entangled his characters
and thus the advantage is mutual.
For the continuance of this good fel
lowship there is reason to be hopeful
Medical science has never perhaps beer
more active than at the present time
The new diseases and the new methods
Of treatment which have not beei
utilized n novels are already forming
portentous crowd clamor NO for recog
milton in story. Neurasthenia and it
cnre by the Weir Mitchell process o
massage has not, to my knowl
edge, yet been drawn i'm, al
though the marvellous cures o
bed-ridden indiv duals would seen
to furnish scope for an interesting
worker. The 'antiseptic process als'
has its picturesque SIDES; the saving o
life and limb on the battle field, rs fur
nished by the medical records of tn
last Egyptian campa On, gives ampl
opportunity for surprises of the mos
! telling character.
The recognition of h 'therto unre
allied sease by means of TIL ophthal
moscopc and the prognost'c value O
the signs might also be described. Loco
mot o ataNia has already played par
in an Agnostlc dialogue in contem
porary, bat there is yet room for it
further development in the pages c
fiction. Metallo-therapy is too niue
discredited now to find favor, but tn
prophylactic action of copper agains
cholera was until recen " sufficient
unproven to allow of IFS being sweep
into the vortex of fiction, for the in
struction of those who DO not folio,
the medical journals ass d ouslv
1t is impossible to lay down rules O
to point out all the lines which migf
be followed. The am of this article
to show from the past what has bee
worthily accomplished, what has bee
recklessly undertaken, as well as tn
IN stakes Of those attempting to forete
the future of medicine, in the hope tina
while afiordng interest TO the public,
may also help move lists, who, with IL
materialist of a recent poet:
Would learn with the boldest to think,
Wou ii grapple with things that perplex,
Woud stand on the verge and the brink
NtHeteeRM Century.